Carl Froch and Jermain Taylor put on a war last night, with Froch pulling out an epic 12th round TKO victory while behind on the cards. The two are already talking about doing it again. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

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Carl Froch and Jermain Taylor put on a hell of a show in Connecticut last night on Showtime, and both sound willing to do a rematch.

Afterward, Froch called out retired former super middleweight and light heavyweight champion Joe Calzaghe — even though the Pride of Wales has expressed no interest in returning to the ring. Froch also offered to give Taylor a rematch.

"Does Jermain Taylor deserve a rematch?" Froch said. "Absolutely he does."

"Yeah," Taylor added, "I'd like a rematch."

...

"My hat's off to Carl Froch," Taylor said. "He came over here and stuck it out for 12 rounds."

It wouldn't at all surprise me to see them do it again, and Froch seems totally willing to keep on fighting in America, not content to stay in his backyard. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if he'd want to do a Taylor rematch in Nottingham, and he earned that right. Jermain should have to go to Froch if that's the way Carl wants it -- no question.

I'd fully support a rematch, though it would also be interesting to see Froch take on Sakio Bika, a powerful and still-hungry fighter that's itching for a title shot. But Froch-Taylor II is worthy, unlike some rematches (hello, Dawson-Tarver II). Taylor won most of that fight and Froch outgutted and outpunched him at the end of it. He earned his win, and Taylor fought well enough that he deserves another crack at the title, I think.

We'll see how it all shakes out, but this was one to remember.

Jermain Taylor down in the 12th round against Carl Froch in Mashantucket, CT. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

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Carl Froch stunned Jermain Taylor with a late comeback that resulted in a stoppage with just 16 seconds left in the fight, keeping his WBC super middleweight title and his undefeated record, and sending Taylor's career back into limbo.

Taylor (28-3-1, 17 KO) lost his third fight in his last four outings, and it came with the same questions that were raised against Kelly Pavlik. Taylor started hot and was downright dominating Froch for much of the fight. I had him up 106-102 going into the final round -- Taylor had used a piston-like jab and some good power shots, decking Froch in the third round. It was the first time Froch has been down in his pro career, and he recovered quite well. But the difference in handspeed, athleticism and skill was clear much of the fight.

However, in the middle rounds, Taylor seemed to slow down just a bit. He was still winning the fight, but in the final few rounds, it was Froch who took over. In the 12th round, he attacked Taylor with a ferocity, clearly feeling he needed the KO. He turned out to be right: Two of the official judges had it 106-102 Taylor, same as I did.

Froch floored Taylor, who tried desperately to hang on. With 16 seconds left, the referee jumped in to stop Froch's massive assault -- it was the right call. Even though there was almost no time left in the fight, Taylor couldn't be allowed to be pounded on anymore.

For Froch (25-0, 20 KO) this is a huge win. It's by far the biggest win of his career, and completely legitimizes him. Yes, he's a little slow of hand and a bit basic overall, but he's got a granite chin and legit power. He's also got a lot of heart. He will eventually run into someone good that beats him. Taylor could beat him in a rematch. But he didn't have enough to go all 12 full rounds with Froch tonight.

On the undercard, Allan Green waxed Carlos De Leon Jr. with four second round knockdowns, which led to a stoppage. Green will likely fight IBF super middleweight titlist Lucian Bute this summer. Should be a good one, though I think Bute outboxes him with relative ease.

In Puerto Rico, Juan Manuel Lopez beat the hell out of Gerry Penalosa for nine rounds before Freddie Roach stopped the fight on behalf of Penalosa. Lopez (25-0, 23 KO) was completely dominant, breaking down Penalosa's defense and just wailing on him for most of the fight. Penalosa went out a warrior, falling to 54-7-2 (36 KO). It may well be his final fight, but who knows? He turned it into a firefight and it didn't work out, but he sure as hell went at it hard.

On the HBO undercard, Willy Blain (20-1, 3 KO) messed up his right hand and was stopped by the referee against Lamont Peterson (27-0, 12 KO). It proves little that we didn't already know about Peterson, and I hope he steps up sooner rather than later.

In Germany, Felix Sturm predictably stopped Koji Sato after seven one-sided rounds. Sato clearly had no business in the ring with Sturm, who seemed like he was performing at about 80% of his full power. The fight was everything we thought it would be.

We now fully gear up for the final days leading up to the huge showdown between Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao next Saturday. It's gonna be a big, big week, so stay tuned.

We will be LIVE tonight with round-by-round coverage and scoring of BOTH of the big cards on American TV. Showtime kicks us off with Froch-Taylor at 9pm (B-side: Green-De Leon Jr.) and HBO joins the party at 10pm ET with Lopez-Penalosa (B-side: Peterson-Blain).

I think there's a decent chance I'll be able to handle, in order: Green-De Leon Jr., Froch-Taylor and Lopez-Penalosa. The timing should work out -- should. Might not, but should.

Either way, someone will be around and we'll be here. Join us for what promises to be a hell of a night of boxing.

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Quick Note: I know I haven't gotten around to posting the results of Williams-Wright, but I'll either get that up before these cards or I'll just put it all together for early next week. Apologies!

Second Note: We will have live, round-by-round coverage of both cards on Saturday night, plus tomorrow night's special ShoBox, which I'm also going to throw into the picks mix.

Third Note: We're not going to pick the undercard bouts this time around, because none of them are...I dunno, big enough or competitive enough. Feel free to throw your picks out, but we're not gonna count them. Too many people won't know one guy or another guy.

Friday, Showtime: Cory Spinks v. Deandre Latimore (12 Rounds - Vacant IBF Junior Middleweight Title)

Spinks (36-5, 11 KO) has been out of the ring following back-to-back losses to Jermain Taylor and Verno Phillips, and that layoff has now reached just about 13 months to the day when he climbs into the ring on Friday in St. Louis. Both are natives of the city so there won't be any real homecourt advantage. You all know Spinks: He'll do what he does, and I doubt the layoff will make him any less effective. I also feel compelled to again argue that Verno Phillips had no business getting the decision against him last March. That was some pretty bad ringside judging from my view, but then again my view was a Don King webcast. Col. Bob had it for Spinks, too, but then again Spinks was the house fighter. (I didn't have it quite so wide as Col. Bob.)

Spinks turned 31 in February. Across the ring from him will be 23-year old Latimore (19-1, 16 KO). Deandre has been sitting on his ranking since upsetting a baked Sechew Powell on Friday Night Fights last June. That fight was a massive step up in competition for Latimore and for whatever reason (munchies? paranoia?), Powell seemed totally disinterested and unprepared. It's hard to really learn a lot from that fight. Powell just was not mentally there. Latimore has a good KO rate, but Spinks has been stopped just once, by Zab Judah in 2005 at 147 pounds. He's slick, hard to hit, and will be without question the best fighter the young Latimore has ever faced.

I hate to do it. I wanna say the young blood gets the nod. Don't think it's gonna happen, and I suspect if it does it'll be some more questionable scoring that does the real deed. Spinks UD-12

Featured on the undercard: Devon Alexander should wipe the mat with Chuy Rodriguez.

Saturday, Showtime: Carl Froch v. Jermain Taylor (12 Rounds - Froch's WBC Super Middleweight Title on the line)

Speaking of guys facing their best opposition ever, that's what Froch (24-0, 19 KO) has on his hands as he makes his first business trip to the States to meet Jermain Taylor on the semi-neutral ground that is Mashantucket, Conn.

Taylor (28-2-1, 17 KO) bounced back from consecutive defeats to Kelly Pavlik to wail on Jeff Lacy last November, but one thing about that sort of bothers me with regard to Froch: Lacy is a pretty slow-moving, durable guy with some power. He hurt Jermain in that fight. Froch is a fairly slow-moving, durable guy with better hand speed and more initiative than Lacy. Froch can dish out some good blows, too. The fact that Jean Pascal made it to the distance against Froch in their December war spoke highly of both guys, I thought. Each of them turned in what was probably their career-best performance.

Froch has a lot to prove. Beating Taylor could mean a payday back home with Mikkel Kessler if promotional issues get sorted out there, or a fight back on the road with Lucian Bute in Montreal down the line, and Bute fights are money at the Bell Centre. If Taylor wins I'm not sure what he'd want to do. I can't imagine him going over to Europe to fight Kessler or anyone, nor do I think he'd venture to Montreal to fight Bute. Taylor is The Star of these guys, at least in America, at least relatively speaking. He'll want them to come to him. He could take a "stay-busy" sort of defense against Allan Green should Green win on the undercard, since Taylor-Green was the idea for this show before Showtime ponied up for Froch. Eventually I figure he's going to 175 anyway, for better or worse.

Buuuut, back to the matter at hand: I really like JT. He's one of my favorite fighters, and by that I mean he's one of my favorite guys in boxing. Humble, funny, easygoing, doesn't talk a ton of trash, never seems to want to get all "personal." I think he's going to lose this fight. I think at some point, Froch is going to press him, hurt him, and move in for the kill when he sees an opportunity. Taylor fought Lacy with a mild arrogance that wasn't befitting a guy that needed the W to get his career back on track. Froch is hungry enough, strong enough, and good enough to really take him down if that happens again. Maybe a mild upset to some, but I'm going with the titleholder. Froch TKO-10

Featured on the undercard: If Allan Green's colon is good and he stops looking at his feet, he should be able to handle Carlos de Leon, Jr. -- but an upset would not surprise me in the least.

Saturday, HBO: Juan Manuel Lopez v. Gerry Penalosa (12 Rounds - Lopez's WBO Junior Featherweight title on the line)

Juanma (24-0, 22 KO) has become one of the sport's most exciting young phenoms, and with James Kirkland likely done for the time being, he might just be the most exciting young, already established fighter in the sport. Hell, he might've been anyway. Your mileage may vary.

Lopez really hasn't fought much at all in about a year, when Jonathan Oquendo took him into the third round. Since then he's brutally waxed Daniel Ponce de Leon in a fight where many thought he might finally meet some real resistance, then he got rid of Cesar Figueroa in 47 seconds, and then Sergio Medina disgraced himself and the sport with the debacle in December in which he clearly did not come to fight, defend himself, or do anything but collect his paycheck, go home, and make up stories.

36-year old Penalosa (54-6-2, 36 KO) has been boxing professionally since 1989 -- yup, 1989. Ken Griffey Jr.'s rookie season. Brett Favre wasn't even in the NFL. The now-retired Oscar de la Hoya was three years away from Olympic gold. Look Who's Talking was the fourth-biggest movie in America.

What a world.

He has a wealth of experience, he's a cagey veteran, and he's a good boxer. He took Ponce de Leon to the limit the last time he came up to 122 pounds, only to have the judges score it obscenely wide for Ponce. Returning to bantamweight, he ripped Jhonny Gonzalez and sent him packing from the division, then stopped Ratanachai Sor Vorapin in April of last year. He took a tune-up fight in February, beating undistinguished Mexican German Meraz over 10 rounds.

It would be foolish of the Lopez camp to think they'll run through Penalosa as they've done the last three guys they've fought, and as they've done most of the guys Lopez has faced in his career. But I think that's more or less exactly what's going to happen. Penalosa is three inches shorter (5'4") than Lopez and has the exact same disadvantage in reach (68" - 65"). Lopez is a good boxer as well as being a powerhouse. He's bigger, younger, faster, stronger. Lopez TKO-4

Featured on the undercard: Lamont Peterson takes on Frenchman Willy Blain, who has no power (20-0, 3 KO) but a legit amateur background. I get the feeling Lamont has a tougher time with Blain than he expects, but pulls out a decision win.

Jermain Taylor at one point was one of the hottest properties in boxing, a young champion with two wins over the legendary middleweight Bernard Hopkins. And Taylor might never live it down.

Though the close wins over Hopkins are still disputed by many, Taylor beat him twice officially, in two close fights where he clearly was able to trouble a man who hadn't had any problems with his opposition in some time. He had a lot going for him: Youth, skill, hard work, and a great, easygoing personality. Had HBO had their druthers, Taylor might be taking over as the flagship fighter of the network by now.

Instead, here we are nearly four years after the first win over Bernard Hopkins, and Jermain Taylor's career is at another crossroads. On April 25, the former middleweight champion will take on 168-pound titlist Carl Froch in Connecticut, televised by Showtime. It could tell us a lot about where his career's headed.

Between Hopkins and Froch, Taylor's schedule has been picked at by some. Though he did take on and draw world-class middleweight Winky Wright, he then fought a couple of guys who had been campaigning at 154 pounds in Kassim Ouma (an easy decision win) and Cory Spinks (a boring decision win). In all fairness to Taylor, he did try to fight "Contender" season one champ Sergio Mora, but Mora didn't agree to terms, and Spinks was his replacement.

Maybe he was feeling the heat from fans starting to say he wouldn't fight real middleweights. Maybe he just didn't really know what he wanted to do anymore. He had fired his trainer, Pat Burns, and hired Hall of Famer Manny Steward, a partnership that began with the Wright fight, an erratic performance from Taylor, and had come to a near-boil during Taylor's lackluster win over Spinks. On the undercard that night, a young fighter from Youngstown, Ohio, named Kelly Pavlik had beaten big puncher Edison Miranda to a pulp. During the late rounds of Taylor-Spinks, Steward remarked to Taylor that he told him he should've fought Miranda.

Not exactly the most constructive corner advice.

Taylor faced Pavlik in September 2007, and it was boxing history. Though he rocked and decked Pavlik early in the fight and was leading on all three scorecards, Taylor was hurt on a vicious right hand in the seventh round. Searching for a breather, he found himself pummeled on in the corner until referee Steve Smoger jumped in to stop it.

One of the best fights of the decade ended with Taylor's first professional loss, a pounding at the hands of a fighter he and Steward had publicly declared was no big deal. Following the loss, Taylor and Steward parted ways, and Taylor replaced him with Ozell Nelson, who had been there his entire pro career. Nelson took Taylor into a rematch with Pavlik in February 2008, and though he fought better, he lost a 12-round unanimous decision.

Middleweight wasn't an option anymore, and the bloom was off the rose. Taylor had made his intentions to move up to super middleweight clear before he fought Pavlik the first time, perhaps looking for a megafight with Wales' Joe Calzaghe. But the Pavlik losses meant that wouldn't happen.

After nine months off, he was back in the ring in November against ex-super middleweight titlist Jeff Lacy, who himself had seen better, more promising days. Taylor was rocked in the bout, but his overall performance was very strong. The two former roomates left what they had in the ring, with Taylor taking a wide decision, Lacy winning just one round on two official cards and two on the third card.

But if a faded Lacy was a tune-up -- and he was -- who would be the real step into the division? Calzaghe retired shortly after, having beaten Roy Jones Jr. the same month that Taylor beat Lacy. Mikkel Kessler had not just burned some American TV bridges, but was having problems with his promotional people. HBO didn't want a fight with Froch, who was barely known in the States.

In stepped Showtime, and now we have a fight. Froch, at 31, is actually a little older than Taylor, but with just 24 fights, all wins, on his pro sheet. He made some fans around the world and a few believers as well with his December victory over Jean Pascal in a shootout that gave him the vacant WBC super middleweight title. Now, after talking big for years about anyone that he might possibly have been able to fight, he faces his first world-class opponent -- in theory, anyway.

Though Froch's somewhat plodding style has been knocked at times, I really have more questions about Taylor than I do about Froch right now. Where did Jermain's power go? He buzzed Pavlik pretty well the first time around, but Taylor hasn't stopped an opponent since beating Daniel Edouard inside of three rounds. That was on February 19, 2005.

Basically what I mean is, I know what Froch can and will do. He's going to go in there, he's going to look to hurt Taylor, and he's going to try to make a firefight. It worked well against Pascal, who like Taylor had the speed advantage. Some might say that Pascal is no Taylor, but I'd counter and say Pascal probably puts punches together better than Jermain does when he's at his best (and Pascal was at his best), and point out that Jermain hasn't really looked good offensively in a long time. This might be the fight where he gets it back. It also might not. As stationary as Froch can be, he's better than Jeff Lacy.

It's one of those fights where I struggle greatly trying to pick a winner. We're a week away from this fight and I haven't come close to making up my mind. In that regard, it's quite interesting.

But I do know that a big win for Taylor goes a long way toward getting back some of the reputation that has dwindled in recent years. Still in his physical prime, Taylor is almost an afterthought at this point. Maybe he shouldn't be. Maybe he should. We'll see what the Froch fight can tell us about his immediate future.

Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com says the deal is totally finalized for Showtime's April 25 168-pound title bout between WBC titleholder Carl Froch and former middleweight champ Jermain Taylor, and that the promoters have again cut the real fight fans some slack.

The fight will take place at the MGM Mirage (Foxwoods) in Mashantucket, CT, with ringside seats available for just $200, and a range of other seats to be had for $100, $75 and $50. Tickets are on sale if anyone's interested in going.

Both camps conceded a little for this fight to happen, as neither seemed exuberant in the earlygoing. Showtime also played a role in making this come about, and now the promoters should be given some more credit for the fan friendly pricing. I'm not saying it's like they logically had another choice since Froch is unknown in America and Taylor's star has burned out a little bit, but in the past things like this haven't exactly stopped the greed. It's nice to see everyone using a little common sense.

BoxingScene.com reported recently that talks aren't as dead as they appeared to be in regard to a WBC super middleweight title fight between Carl Froch and Jermain Taylor. Froch promoter Mick Hennessy said the fight is closer than it's ever been:

This would mean that Allan Green, who has already agreed to fight Taylor on March 28, would have to step aside, and Green has already started his camp for the fight. Usually I'd say that sucks for the guy who could possibly have to get out of the way, even if the other fight is bigger and (much) better, but Allan Green has peed in his own Cheerios so many times that I can't pity him if he gets sent down to the undercard. There was talk of him fighting Andre Ward -- who faces Henry "Sugar Poo" Buchanan on Shobox tomorrow night -- but Showtime says there's no budget for Green-Ward on that show.

Froch-Taylor would be a great fight to set up the winner facing Mikkel Kessler. That whole scenario is unlikely, as I still don't actually expect Froch-Taylor to come off and we'll be stuck with JT outclassing Green instead, and even if it does happen, I doubt the winner really fights Kessler, who has his own promoter drama going on in Denmark with the Palles. But it's fun to dream. Imagine, if you will, boxing operating like other sports.

Here's hoping Froch-Taylor does get done, because it's a really good fight and beats the hell out of Taylor-Green, which I don't think anyone actually actively wants to see.